ive recently discovered that brewmasters warehouse is not going to carry simpsons crystal, and have switched to crisp. which does come in more variety. I was interested to see what you guys thought about the difference between the two. is there? I was always a big fan of simpsons malting. is this good or bad?

I think you're going to find that most people don't really have an opinion one way or the other. Most people are shopping based on price and/or the retailer (eg - NB, AHS, BMWH, etc). My guess is that you won't notice much of a difference. They are crystal malts grown in arguably similar conditions. First, crystal malts typically don't make up the largest part of your grain bill. Second, I think that the real year to year, malster to maltster, and in some cases country to country variations in the same malts gets a little overblown. If you put C60 from the two different maltster into two beers with the same recipe, I think you'd be hard pressed to tell there was a difference in the beers that you could specifically pin on the crystal malts. IMO, the only people who are going to be able tell a difference, and more importantly care that they notice a difference, are people who are hardcore fans of one brand vs. another.